Sue Thomson reports that almost one in four (23%) Australian year 8 students were being taught maths in 2018 by teachers whose major qualification was in a field other than maths, hitting disadvantaged schools even harder. Internationally, on average, just one in ten year 8 equivalent...
Why the curriculum should be based on students' readiness not their age, argues Geoff Masters, Australian Council for Educational Research I handed down the final report of a two-year review of the New South Wales school curriculum in June 2020. One of the review’s key recommendations...
There is no doubt about it, writes Rebecca Burley, COVID-19 has impacted the way that all of us interact and use technology in our day to day lives. It’s the same in the classroom. While innovation in technology has shaped learning for years, just a few...
Research by Penny Van Bergen, Linda J. Graham and Naomi Sweller looked at who students remember as their favourite and least favourite teachers, and why. Most of us can remember a favourite teacher. Some of us can also remember a teacher we didn’t get on with...
Teachers told us how COVID highlighted ethical dilemmas at school. To find out from teachers what ethical issues were most pressing for them, Daniella J. Forster, reports on her research. As an educational ethicist, I research teachers’ ethical obligations. These can include their personal ethics such...
One-third of all preschools may lack a qualified teacher in the next four years, reports Megan O'Connell, if nothing changes, her new modelling shows. Currently, half of all early childhood teachers have a bachelor degree, with a further one-third still working towards one. With many expected...
Global school shutdowns in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed online education and virtual schooling to the forefront of the political agenda, writes Neil Selwyn Millions of young people being educated through Zoom tutorials, Google Classroom, and Microsoft Teams was soon touted as a...
In the series, Better Teachers, Claire Brown, explores how to improve teacher education in Australia. She looks at what the evidence says on a range of themes including how to raise the status of the profession and measure and improve teacher quality. “I’m just so bad...
In this Covid-19 atmosphere, where parents have to become the teacher for their child teaching in isolation from home, we look at what makes a great teacher and why parents will appreciate them more when our closed schools reopen. It’s well-known that teachers have the biggest...
We ask four Australians what they want most to better our schools....
